Premium clothing retailers feel squeeze

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This article was published 08/11/2024 (329 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A slew of clothing retailers have recently closed their Winnipeg shops, with some opting for online-only sales.

Over the past year, at least three premium menswear stores downtown and an Osborne Village women’s boutique have shuttered their brick-and-mortar sites.

Hobbyism is the latest to take its stock off shelves. The Colony Street venture opened at the end of 2022. (It was unclear by print deadline Friday whether it will continue selling men’s clothing online.)

Both Livestock Winnipeg and Cntrbnd, national chains, have ended their physical presence downtown. Interview requests to the menswear companies went unanswered. Customers can buy from Livestock online; Cntrbnd’s website was down Friday.

Regan Greenwood made the decision to convert Style Bar, her boutique, to an online business last winter. By April, she’d turned off the lights at 470 River Ave.

“I think I made the right decision,” Greenwood said.

She’d run Style Bar in Osborne Village for a decade. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, about five per cent of her sales were online, she estimated.

Once the novel coronavirus hit, all sales went online. Most purchases continued through Style Bar’s website as restrictions lifted.

Add in theft, safety concerns and rising operating costs … “It just didn’t make sense for me to continue on that way,” Greenwood said.

She’s since been working from a home office and keeps stock in a warehouse, “drastically” reducing overhead expenses — rent, staff pay, insurance. Greenwood estimates operating costs have decreased by 80 per cent.

“I knew that if I were able to cut my expenses down … I’d be able to give better pricing to my customers,” she said, adding it makes her more competitive with online behemoths such as Amazon.

She’s heard from clients who are squeezed by a higher cost of living and spending less on items like clothing.

The online retail landscape is challenging, Greenwood noted — she has to fight harder to get noticed and needs to position Style Bar “in a unique way” to grab attention.

Greenwood said she wouldn’t have considered changing her business model pre-pandemic, but it’s the economy and it’s society. “It’s just routine now — they can get everything online delivered right to their door.”

Others in the industry echoed Greenwood’s experience. None of the menswear brands explained to the Free Press their reason for closure.

“I wouldn’t say necessarily that … all brick-and-mortar store closures are terrible,” said Divya Ramachandran, a University of Manitoba marketing professor. “I would rather have the business continue, even if it’s just continuing online.”

Ramachandran teaches mostly Gen Z students. Many prefer shopping on the internet. Some eyeball goods in store before returning home to check if it’s cheaper online.

“It’s slightly different when you’re shopping for it online than when you’re shopping for it in store, but the question is: is that difference big enough?” Ramachandran asked. “In this economy … the answer is probably no.”

Statistics Canada tracked a year-over-year decrease in household spending on clothing and footwear in the spring months of 2024.

The Royal Bank of Canada found “significant pullback” from buying clothes and footwear after a back-to-school surge in August, as per an October report. Overall retail spending “chugs along at a tepid pace.”

Still, some major retailers such as Aritzia and Lululemon are growing, noted Jie Yang, a University of Manitoba business professor.

The companies are creating so-called omnichannels, where shopping online and in-store merge together. For example, purchasing something online and picking it up in a shop, Yang explained.

“It doesn’t mean independent stores … cannot survive,” he continued. “(But) the independent stores … that survive must have some unique or competitive advantages.”

Economic pressures on consumers and hybrid work — requiring less office attire — have likely dampened retail sales, Yang noted.

Melanie Bernadsky has operated Freshcut Downtown, a florist, for nearly 30 years. Corporate workers used to be the company’s “bread and butter.”

“Now … are people working (in office) today? Are they not working today?” Bernadsky said. “There’s no rhyme or reason.”

She has seen more sales online and from area residents since the pandemic, Bernadsky said, adding she enjoys working downtown.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com